08 July 2009

I saw Dr. Second Opinion on Monday regarding my ongoing GI issues. You may recall that I saw him about six weeks ago. In the interim, I tracked down my medical records from when I was in hospital Jan-Feb 2008. This was just a follow-up appointment for him to look at my records.

I spent about an hour in his office while he went through the records, lab reports, H&P from my ER admissions, etc. In the end, he said that he absolutely did not understand why the hospital kept diagnosing me with pancreatitis. The only indication that I had pancreatitis was an elevated lipase level (132). But he explained to me that while a lipase level of over 100 is considered "elevated," when a patient gets admitted for pancreatitis, they'll generally have a lipase level of, say, 2000.

He said it was also curious that my pain is nowhere near my pancreas. Guess where my pain is? Let's all say it together: my gallbladder!

He ordered an ultrasound for next week, on Wednesday. If he sees any gallstones at all, he's going to take my gallbladder out. I reminded him that I have no pain right now, and he said that of people with gall stones, only about 1-2% of them experience pain. So no pain doesn't mean no stones.

So - on Wednesday, please please please pray that they see gall stones. Because I would LOVE few things more than for this issue to be resolved. I'm tired of the pain, tired of dreading the pain, tired of trying to predict when it's going to attack, tired of being told that no one knows what's causing the pain...

He also asked what brought me to him. I explained that three months ago when I got another attack, my regular GI took two weeks to get back to me. He commented that Dr. GI is a good doctor. I said that while I do like Dr. GI, I was already frustrated with the chronic-ness of this issue, and the two week call-back time was too much. His reaction?

He told me that if anything happens on a weekend, go to the ER. If it happens during the week, call his office. If I can't reach him, ask for his nurse. One of them will send me an order for a blood test. He also told me that he's going on vacation for two weeks at the end of this month. He said if anything happens then, he wants me to call his nurse and make sure she gets a message to one of the other doctors. Is there anything better than feeling like a doctor LISTENS????

Dr. GI: You're fired.Dr. Second Opinion has been promoted.

Bonus: While I was in the exam room waiting for him, I spun a bit. He came in and saw me spinning and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was making yarn, which just means adding twist to fiber. He asked me how the twist gets added. So I started showing him. He was really interested in it and thought it was cool.